AFLPA on a collision course with league over third party deals

Will Brodie
Published: November 19, 2012 - 2:44PM

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The uproar rule surrounding rule changes to AFL third party deals has continued, with Eddie McGuire bemoaning the "head-start" Carlton receives every year from Chris Judd's Visy deal and the AFLPA refusing to rule out court action.

"I'm sick to death of looking down the road and seeing Carlton having a $200,000 head start every year for the last five years," Collingwood president McGuire told his Triple M audience on Monday.

McGuire said he was "fighting for the truth" and "fighting for equality for clubs".

"Let's sort it out so players can make the money and clubs can compete equally."

Carlton has been forced to include the $200,000 from its captain's third-party deal with Visy in its salary cap, a decision it said came on October 22, too late for the club to clear cap space during the trade period.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson told afl.com.au on Sunday night that the league publicly flagged a stricter approach to third party deals in 2010 when negotiating upcoming free agency.

However, AFL Players' Association general manager of player relations Ian Prendergast told SEN that although the AFLPA knew the league was "cracking down" on such deals, they considered such changes were only provided "to clarify the criteria that are in place".

"They should have any material impact on the type of deal that are approved or not," Prendergast said.

"If there were significant changes made to the rules it would be then necessary for us to collectively negotiate on behalf of all players in terms of what they look like and the impact they would have."

Prendergast believes Judd has satisfied the criteria set out by AFL rules, but has concerns for smaller fry at Carlton, and elsewhere in the league.

"From an AFL Players' Association point of view, our interests are broader than that because this decision by the AFL to reject the proposed agreement has a potential impact on other players who are on Carlton's list, as well as setting a dangerous precedent in terms of other independent agreements being rejected in the future."

He believes AFL players operate under "extremely hard restraints" - some of the "hardest in world sport at a professional level".

“If you remove the Visy deal from the conversation … the majority of them are fairly small. All independent agreements, including the Visy deal, only make up about 1% of payments that go to players."

The tenor of Anderson's words appears to set it on a collision course with Carlton, Judd, and the AFLPA.

"It's very important for us to protect the integrity of the cap and we think it is a matter of fairness to all clubs, as we announced in 2010, that we more strictly enforce the rules for payments outside the salary cap," Anderson said.

In 2010, Anderson was reported as saying the following about proposed changes: "So if you're a director of a club, or a president of a club, and that company is associated, that would be one factor we'll be less likely in the future … to allow."

As for the outspoken McGuire, who is apparently about to get the crackdown on his arch-rival he wishes for, he said: "I think what the AFL need to do is bring in a fully audited system and really ramp up the cheating ramifications.”

And despite generating newsworthy controversy with his comments, the Magpie boss does not want to be a lone voice on the issue: "It would be handy every now and again if a few other presidents stuck their head up and a bit of a dip as well."

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/aflpa-on-a-collision-course-with-league-over-third-party-deals-20121119-29lnn.html